Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6)(35)

“Stop pulling!” Birdie huffed with a red face. “You’re not supposed to bash people around when you call the corners. You’re supposed to join everyone else. This is why guys get kicked out of the sisterhood.”

“This ain’t why. Having a penis is why. Guys don’t want to listen to your nonsense.” Paulie took a deep breath and tried to still his mind. Tried to just be with the increased flow of magic battering at his senses. This much power was no joke. If you didn’t constantly keep yourself in some sort of chi, it would crash down on top of you and roll you over. Paulie hadn’t survived his life this far to get steamrolled by a freaking fairy tale.

He and Birdie sat in Master Bert’s class on the top floor of the Mansion among a bunch of pubescents. They were in an advanced class that was currently focusing on spell casts, charms, and linking. All the kids could already do it reasonably well. It was the humans who were struggling. Without Sasha they were mostly hopeless.

The breeding program that Birdie and Delilah were instigating sounded less and less asinine.

“Okay, do a spell.” Birdie sat in a chair in front of him with her fingers curled tightly around the arms. She was the only one to get a seat. While she could get up off the floor, no one wanted to chance her not being able to. The cold did something to her bones, or some shit, and she got terribly cranky when she was still.

Even Master Bert was wary.

“Maw, how is everyone doing?” Master Bert threaded his way through the focusing students. “If you have the link stabilized, try a spell. Maw, that is the next step.”

“God, that guy is creepy.” Paulie put out his hands to give the illusion of balance. Eyes still squeezed shut, he focused all his attention on weaving a spell for a small plant. Just a little green thing that might grow out of the pot of dirt between him and Birdie. Nothing big. Should be easy.

“Don’t you create a monster,” Birdie warned. Sweat dribbled down her cheeks. “Do not invert that spell!”

He didn’t need to be told. The classroom had just been patched up from his last spell-gone-wild.

He worked the elements with a smooth and delicate hand. He tried to do as Birdie said and be at one with her. Tried to grow a vagina and hang with the gals. Tried to bend the spell just right, and then he could gently, ever so gently, lay—

His phone screamed from his pocket.

He jumped. His spell curled and then wobbled. The elements clashed.

“Oh shi—” A zing of power blasted out in all directions. Firecracker-like magic zipped through the class, burning anyone it crashed against.

“Damn it, human!” one of the kids yelled. People hopped up. Some started to run and wave their hands wildly. Paulie couldn’t help chuckling.

“Shield class,” Master Bert instructed in a loud voice. “Maw, shielding will protect you from spells such as that. Mostly. They are high in power, but it will singe less.”

Paulie’s phone trilled again. He fished it out to glares. “Paulie.”

“That Mercedes just blew through, man,” a gruff voice sounded in the phone.

A cold shiver trickled down Paulie’s back. They’d just returned. It’d be another couple of hours before they’d be heading back up to that plush birthing place. Right now, Sasha only had Jonas, Charles and Ann to watch out for her.

“You get a tail on it?” Paulie asked, standing up and waving away Master Bert’s irritation with the phone call.

“Yeah. Stopped up near Hyde Park. Met some other guys. They was talking about humans and science and some shit. Something about some human link or something. I think they want into this territory, though. There was talk about clearing out some mage or something—I didn’t get that, really. But then some leader. They was talking about the biggest threats and what not. Dangerous, though. They talkin’ crazy, but they’re dangerous. No guns that I saw, but these guys were carrying some muscle, know what I’m sayin’? I’d wait to get them in an alley with firepower if I was you. Take them out handy-like and then disappear. That’s the way to play those guys.”

Paulie was out of the classroom and jogging toward the stairs. “Where’d they go after?”

“Headed out of town. A few of ‘em. Three white guys with lots of money. Talked like a bunch o’ uppity bastards. This ain’t no street game, you know that. These f*ckers got some clout. All’s I’m sayin’. Take ‘em out quiet-like and disappear. Safest way to play it. Hold your turf, but you don’t gotta advertise which way the wind is blowin’, know what I’m sayin’?”

“All right, Rudy. Thanks, man.”

“No sweat. Good luck. You need guns for hire, you know who to call.”

Paulie didn’t need guns for hire. He just needed to point out the danger and let this swarm of vicious, bloodthirsty people kill everything in sight. It was comforting knowing he wasn’t the most violent in the crew, anymore. Grounding.

Exhilarating.

Paulie burst into a large meeting room and sought the Boss’ eyes immediately. He braced himself against the blast of strength and power in that dark gaze before saying, “That shifter is in town.”

The entire room stood in a rush. The Boss was running towards him in the next second, Jameson and three others directly behind.

“What do you know?” the Boss asked as they moved down the hall quickly. People scattered to the sides and held perfectly still for the procession to pass.